"In the sleepy, North Indian town of Amarpur, a young boy named Baba Singh Toor secretly murders a moneylender in a moment of blind sorrow and rage, setting events in motion that will shape the coming generations of Toors."--From Amrit Chima's debut novel "Darshan."

Amrit Chima was raised in Pacifica, went to school in San Francisco, moved to LA, then Seattle, received her MFA from Emerson College in Boston, lived in New York — and then spent two years in Budapest, Hungary teaching English. She returned to the Bay Area last February after learning of her mom's terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Currently, Amrit and her husband, her brother, his wife and their two young sons are all living in her parent's home to keep her dad company after the death of her mom. She is also working on her next novel. Chima will be at Florey's Books on Saturday to discuss and sign copies of "Darshan."

A travel writer — "Global Traveler Magazine," "Untapped Cities," and syndicated on "Flavorwire" — Chima's novel finds its roots in the author's own family history of "inspiring migratory adventures."

"My dad's family is originally from Punjab, Northern India, from the villages," Chima said. "My great grandfather joined the British Colonial Police Force and was stationed in China for many years. Two of my great uncles (my grandfather's older brothers) were born in Shanghai and grew up speaking Cantonese."

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Chima's great grandfather eventually moved back to India, where Amrit's grandfather was born. In 1938, her great grandfather, her great uncles and grandfather all moved to Fiji with their respective wives. Eventually, her great grandfather and great uncles moved to the UK. Chima's father and his siblings left Fiji to pursue higher education in California and eventually all settled in the Bay Area. Chima's American mother was of Irish and German descent. The author's novel came together over the course of five years. It arrived in bookstores, October of 2013.

"I always knew I wanted to write a novel," Chima said of "Darshan." "But in my graduate program, I didn't yet have anything to say — only anecdotes and vague ideas."

Chima said that eventually life experiences led her to the notion of families being so guarded, so reticent to communicate with each other — that that lack of communication can spread like a disease through generations, and that idea "opened" her book. She chose to make "Darshan" an "Indian" story.

"Being half Indian, I grew up with a big identity crisis," the author said. "Was I Indian or not? Being Indian is far more colorful and vibrant than simply being white (or part Irish and German)."

"Not that there's anything wrong with being Irish or German at all," the author laughed. "My mom definitely had some interesting stories of her own. But through my experience, my unique lens, it couldn't compare to Indian food, clothes, music, dance, etc."

Unlike her father's family, for Chima, migration was not a part of her travel experience. Still she has traveled. When she wrote for "Global Traveler" she was gone on assignment for weeks or months at a time to places such as New Zealand, Fiji, India, Thailand, Europe, Canada and Indonesia.

The author classifies "Darshan" as literary fiction.

"It's historical fiction almost as an afterthought," Chima said. "I did so much research to make the book feel authentic, not just for the setting, but to lend authenticity to the characters, to their development. The only way to do that was to let them live through whatever was going on in the time I chose to write about."

"I hope people don't read it too quickly," the author said. "I hope they don't miss out on what it really means to learn something from a parent. It doesn't happen at all the way people assume it does. There are so many ways to learn, the biggest of which, is to let go and listen.